After a promising start, CSU have dropped three straight games and will be without star Rob Herzfeld for Saturday’s game against red-hot North Wagga at Peter Hastie Oval.

It’s also the start of university holidays, but Athanitis says there’s no panic. 

“We just haven’t had any sort of consistency with our team, which doesn’t help,” Athanitis said. 

“We’re coming to that stage where we’ll have a lot of changes each week but we know that’s coming. We’re very positive, there’s no gloom and doom with us.

“We’re looking forward to it. This time last year, we’d won one game. The club as a whole is in a pretty solid spot.”

After a slow start, CSU went down by a kick at Coleambally last week, with the coach left ruing another slow start. And some bad luck in taking on a Blues side boosted by former SANFL and Ovens and Murray League player Michael Handby.

“I wasn’t disappointed, I was pleased with our effort,” Athanitis said. “Our main aim is to be more consistent… they’ve got to step up this week.”

The Bushpigs will resist focussing on who North Wagga have at their disposal, with Athanitis keen for them to continue to work on their own game.

“With the boys we’ve got, we don’t look at the opposition as much as try and challenge themselves as competitors,” he said.

“I think we’ll look at how we approached it both times last year – we were really positive, we tried to go with them one on one. But they’ve obviously improved a bit as a group last year.”

The Bushpigs will look forward to the bye next week, in the middle of the uni break, before they begin the backhalf of the season, at home to Temora. 

Finals is still well-and-truly the aim.

“We’re still going alright, we’re still happy,” Athanitis said.